SEND - Local Offer

Our Local Offer

At Holy Trinity C. of E. Primary School all children are valued as individuals and will be given the best opportunities to achieve their full potential including those who may face barriers to learning, develop in terms of their academic ability, talent and skill.

How we provide for children with SEND

Firstly we talk to you the parents/guardians and to your child to discuss his or her barrier to learning. In this meeting we will discuss what needs to be done in order to overcome these barriers. In many cases this will result in your child having an Individual Education Plan (IEP). This outlines specific targets which will be a focus for learning for that term. It also indicates the support your child will receive in order to achieve these targets and access the curriculum. These targets will be reviewed termly to find out if they have been achieved and to evaluate if the additional support has enabled your child to make progress. Then new targets and ideas for provision are discussed and finalised with you and your child.

In some cases we (parents, child and school) will decide that we would like some specific advice about your child from an outside agency in order to make sure we are providing them with the support they need. You can find more information about outside agencies later in this document.

Additional Provision your child could receive

At Holy Trinity we have lots of different options for provision; these options will be tailored to suit the needs of your child which we will decide upon together. Within school we can tailor teaching to suit your child’s needs, for example through breaking instructions into very simple steps or by providing small group support. We can offer intervention groups where your child will be given the opportunity to work in small group situations to work on individualised targets linked to their outcome. They may receive one to one support for a set period a week to work on reading comprehension or basic number activities. They may also be involved in following a specific reading scheme e.g. Code X or using a computer program to target specific learning barriers such as LEXIA which is used to support children with their spelling or Dynamo Maths to concentrate on children’s basic number skills. Your child may also wish to access our mentoring programme

All the resources our children use are carefully selected and aim to engage and motivate the children while supporting them to achieve their targets and thus overcome their barriers to learning.

How the curriculum will be adapted to suit the needs of your child

We ensure that all children can access the National Curriculum within school through the use of additional support and careful differentiation. This may at times mean if your child is not ready to be working on the objectives set out in the National Curriculum for their age range the lesson and activity they take part in will be differentiated to their needs.

How the environment can be adapted to suit the needs of your child

We work hard to ensure we cater for all children by making the environment accessible to the needs of all the children within our school for example through the use of lowering of ceilings to improve acoustics and visual timetables.

Within school we have a number of people who have specific training and may be asked to work with your child.Teaching Assistants are trained to mentor the children to discuss their barriers to learning. In addition to this Higher Level Teaching Assistant, Mrs Crowe, is trained in Sand Play Therapy and Drawing and Talking therapy. This training enables us to offer opportunities for children to process their feelings and develop coping strategies.

We also have three members of staff with sign language qualifications (one at Level 1 and one at level 3).

Who, other than school staff, your child could work with.

Through our discussion we might decide that we need the support of professionals and volunteers with specific knowledge both in the education sector and from health and social services.

Educational services (this is not an exclusive list)

· Educational Psychologist*

· Support teacher*

· Small STEPS

· Hearing impaired service

· Visually impaired service

Health and Social Services(this is not an exclusive list)

· Occupational Therapist

· Speech and Language Therapist*

· School Nurse

· Health Visitor

· Paediatrician

· Clinical Psychologist

· The HUB

· Child and Adolescent mental health service – CAMHS

· Social Services

*As a school we buy extra time from these professionals.

Transition between schools and within key stages

We are aware that some children especially those with SEND find the transition between school and between key stages within school difficult. If you or your child’s class teacher believes they will find this transition difficult we can discuss the needs of your child and how we can make this transition as smooth as possible. The transition could include an opportunity to visit the new classroom/school and early meetings with any staff who will be working with your child.

Extra-Curricular activities for children with SEN

It should be noted that if your child has a special educational need or disability they will be able to take part in extra-curricular activities.

Parent and Pupil Feedback

We will meet at least three times a year to discuss the needs of your child and we are grateful for any feedback you and your child provide (this can be recorded on your child’s IEP if they have one).

Please feel free to contact the school SENDCO to discuss any of the provision provided for children with SEND either to provide positive feedback or to make a complaint (see our school Difficulties Concerns and Complaints procedure). The SENDCO can be contacted by phoning the school phone number (01429 864376) or via the schools email address (admin.holytrinity@school.hartlepool.gov.uk).

Additional Information and Useful Links

You may find the following policies interesting as they will tell you more information about how we support children with SEND.

Hartlepool Local Authority provides lots of information about support for children, young people and families in their Local Offer. This includes information about support and volunteer groups which can provide a useful information, support and networking opportunities. The Hartlepool Local Offer can be found by clicking on the following link. http://hartlepool.fsd.org.uk/kb5/hartlepool/fsd/local_offer.page